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Arrangement and Description

The correspondence of Barzilla Worth Clark is arranged chronologically, each month having a separate folder. Incoming letters and their replies are clipped together. Often a series of letters dealing with the same event are clipped together; these are arranged by the latest date. Material other than correspondence has -been arranged according to type.File cards have been prepared giving the exact dates and location of each item of correspondence.

Scope and Content

The majority of the Barzilla Clark papers are invitations to meetings of professional organizations, invitations to public events, and requests for him to speak to local organizations while he was governor of Idaho, 1937-38. There are also several radio addresses, legislative messages and some miscellaneous material, All the material is contained in a single file box.

The contents of each section are outlined in full in the following Description of Series.

Administrative/Biographical History

Barzilla Worth Clark was born in Hadley, Indiana, December 22, 1881. He was the son of Joseph Addison and Eunice (Hadley) Clark who were among the Hoosier state's Quaker settlers. In 1885 the Clarks arrived in Eagle Rock--now called Idaho Falls--having made the trip from Indiana via narrow gauge railroad. In addition to attending public schools in Idaho Falls, Barzilla returned to Indiana where he attended Rose Polytechnic Institute in Terre Haute. When ill health forced him to cut short his education, he returned to Idaho and engaged in farming, mining and cattle raising.

In 1905 he married Ethel S. Peck, of Idaho Falls. They had four children, 3 daughters and a son, He early became interested in conservation and the development of natural resources, particularly irrigation and hydroelectric projects. His reservoir at the headwaters of the Blackfoot River was later purchased by the government and his plan for impounding Lost River was merged into the Mackay dam.

After serving two terms as councilman, he was elected mayor of Idaho Falls in 1913. During this term the city built the municipal hydroelectric plant no. 1, located just below the Broadway Bridge. Following a period of interest in central Idaho mines, he was again elected mayor in 1927 and continued in that office until he was inaugurated as governor of Idaho in January 1937. At the expiration of his single term as governor in 1939 he returned to Idaho Falls and the development of his personal interests there.

On September 21, 1943, Barzilla W. Clark died of lung cancer in Idaho Falls.

Subjects

This collection is indexed under the following headings in the online
catalog. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons, or
places should search the catalog using these headings.

The folders of correspondence contain both incoming and outgoing letters and are arranged by month. They consist chiefly of invitations to attend meetings and civic events, send delegates to meetings of professional organizations, or to speak to local organizations and at banquets; a few letters acknowledge the receipt of appointments made -by the governor. Copies of Governor Clark's replies to invitations are usually stapled to the original incoming letter.

In the following lists invitations from officers of organizations are listed under the name of the organization, while invitations written on behalf of organizations by persons not connected with the organization, i.e. Governors of States, Mayors of Cities, are listed under the person writing the letter. Although only the year is used in the following lists, the file cards give exact dates.

Printed invitations to which replies have been attached are included in the following list; printed invitations to which there are no replies are in a separate folder and are therefore listed separately.

There are two folders labeled miscellaneous. One contains material related to the legislature and the second contains general types of material.

Folder One

Governor's Message to the Twenty-Fourth Session of the Legislature of Idaho. (General) Printed 8 p.

To the Members of the Idaho legislature Twenty-Fourth session. Concerns the creation of public power districts February 5, 1937 Typed. 2 p.

House Joint Resolution ___ proposing an amendment of Section 3 Article 15, of the Constitution of the State of Idaho ... the right to divert and appropriate the unappropriated waters of the state shall be subject to regulation and control of the state... Typed. 2 p.

Senate Bill No. ____ By State Affairs Committee. An Act relating to Public Power Districts Typed. 58 p.

Folder Two

Audit by the Bureau of Public Accounts. (University accounts) July 1, 1936

There is one folder labeled Biography which contains two items. The first is a two-page typed biography, author unknown, written about 1936. The second is a single typed sheet of autobiographical nature, signed by B.W. Clark and dated October 16, 1937.

Invitations to Governor Clark to attend or speak at meetings; also copies of several of his radio addresses. The majority of the Barzilla Clark papers are invitations to meetings of professional organizations, invitations to public events, and requests for him to speak to local organizations while he was governor of Idaho, 1937-38. There are also several radio addresses, legislative messages and some miscellaneous material, All the material is contained in a single file box.; The contents of each section are outlined in full in the following Description of Series.